


In The Night When You Need Me

by Nevanna



Category: Sense8 (TV)
Genre: Drug Use, F/M, Post-Season/Series 01, Psychic Bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-13 23:53:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9147535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nevanna/pseuds/Nevanna
Summary: As Riley tries to outrun Whispers and her own doubts, and protect Will from himself, she draws strength from the rest of their cluster.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written for the "group support" prompt as part of Hurt/Comfort Bingo. It takes place after Season 1, and before the Christmas Special (but it would probably be helpful to have seen the latter). I readily admit that, going into the series, Will was not my favorite character and had far from my favorite storyline, but Whispers' intrusion into his mind hits some of my favorite narrative buttons and provides the opportunity for some delicious angst, so here we are.
> 
> The title is from the song "Just Call My Name (I'll Be There)" by Blackmore's Night.

Ten minutes after she settles into bed, Riley is on her feet again. She pads across the stained motel carpet, makes sure that the door is still locked, and peers between the blinds before shutting them as tightly as she can. She sits down on the edge of the mattress and runs her hands through her hair, from the dark roots to the bright tips.

Will turns over and mumbles something in his sleep. She lifts his hand and kisses the fingertips. When morning comes, she will contact their drug supplier, and she will arrange transportation to their next hiding place, and she will tie a blindfold gently but tightly over Will’s eyes before they step outside, but the morning is very far away.

“Last night, I checked our lock four times,” Nomi says from a corner that was empty a moment before. “The people at our shelter have been great, and Neets has been trying to stall the Feds. Sometimes I think she’s been waiting her whole life for something like this.” She smiles fondly. “Living outside the law, undermining corruption and conspiracy…”

“Risking everything for love?” Riley puts in. “She knows that it’s not a game, doesn’t she?”

“I think she figured that out when a bunch of mad scientists tried to lobotomize me,” Nomi says sharply. “Yes, babe,” she calls back over her shoulder. “I’m talking to Riley.”

Riley wiggles her fingers in a wave, even though Nomi’s girlfriend can’t see her. “Hello, Amanita.”

“Maybe someday, when none of us are fugitives, you can meet her in person,” Nomi suggests.

Riley’s throat tightens at the words “maybe someday,” and she tries to keep her voice from trembling. “Do you ever think that she would be better off if she weren’t involved in your trouble?”

Nomi groans. “Your boyfriend made another soulful and self-sacrificing speech, didn’t he? Do you want me to yell at him?” She continues without waiting for a reply: “Isolating himself wouldn’t work, and it wouldn’t save him, or any of us.”

“We’re supposed to be able to save each other,” Riley says. “But sometimes I just… I don’t know how much longer we can go on like this.”

During their first night on the run, Will talked about their own _maybe-someday_. If and when they break his mental link with their enemy, he and Riley can build a life together. He imagined a flat in Chicago or London, or a house just far enough from a city for the stars to be visible in the night sky. She insisted that they fill their home with books and music and her friends’ artwork. He suggested adopting a dog, and stopped a little too quickly before either of them could mention having children. 

Riley changed the subject anyway. Her grief over her lost family no longer stalks her every step, but she was afraid that they’d already said too much, that the more they talk about their future, the less certain it will become.

Since that first night, Will, too, has become much less hopeful. Then, when he woke up yesterday, she was positive that _somebody else_ was looking through his eyes, surveying her with clinical satisfaction, greeting her in a tone that he never used. She made a clumsy grab for the needle, but she was almost too late.

It was her idea to sedate him with heroin so that Whispers can’t use him, and Will was desperate enough to agree, but when they imagine a future, they avoid the question of how they’ll manage his habit once that desperation is behind them.

“Amanita and I are scared almost all the time,” Nomi is saying, “but I’m glad to have her with me, as long as she wants to stay. If we need to change our plans, we’ll make that decision together.”

“And so should Will and I,” Riley says. “If we have a choice.”

“Of course you should.”

Riley is starting to understand that when the sensates save each other, it’s not only through big, frightening, life-or-death decisions. Over the past month, salvation has taken many forms. It was in the food that Kala let her and Will taste after they’d lived on instant noodles for a week. It was in the chorus of voices that filled Sun’s prison cell, from different corners of the world: first Riley’s own voice, as she held Sun’s aching head in her lap, before Wolfgang joined in, and then the others. It was in the touch of Will’s forehead against hers as they relived the memories that they’ve already made together.

Salvation is in Nomi’s hug, brief but fierce, as she whispers, “You’re stronger than you know.” When Riley opens her eyes, she and Will are alone again.

At least, she _hopes_ that they’re alone.

His eyes snap open, he sits up, and a chill runs through her, as it always does: _Is it really you?_

The fear fades as soon as he speaks, but he doesn’t pretend not to know what she was thinking. “You’d be safer if you left,” he rasps, not for the first time. 

Riley reconsiders Nomi’s offer to shout at him. “Maybe I would,” she says, taking his face in her hands. “But I’m not going anywhere now.”


End file.
